Ranjit "Raj" Brandston
Raj Brandston was a contestant on Season 8 of Hell's Kitchen. He ranked in 13th place. Personality Raj is widely regarded as the worst and most useless chef in Hell's Kitchen history. For a lack of better terms, he is slow and has trouble communicating with his teammates despite being the only one this season to have more experience (even more than Ramsay himself). He also has a hard time following orders from Ramsay and his teammates, tending to do things on his own. Episode 1 Raj was the last person on the blue team to compete in the Signature Dish Challenge. His dish was a Seafood and Vegetable Pancake. Ramsay was shocked when he saw it and was even more shocked when there was oil pouring out of it. Even though the seafood tasted good, Ramsay denied him points for poor presentation. The blue team still won after a tiebreaker at 3, and were rewarded with massages in the dorms. During the reward, Raj entertained his team by doing drunk karate. During dinner service, Raj was a waiter and worked with Boris on the pizza station. Raj struggle as a waiter and when he returned to the kitchen, he did not follow Boris' instructions to make a pizza and screwed up the station. Both teams lost the dinner service. He was the blue team's first nominee for elimination, with Trev being the second, and joined Lisa and Sabrina from the red team. He survived elimination. Episode 2 During the Sushi Making Challenge, Raj was paired with Russell. Out of their nine sushi pieces, they received 4 points as Raj failed to put wasabi in most of his salmon pieces. The blue team won however with a score of 16-15. They won a trip to Cellar360 in San Francisco with Ramsay for wine tasting and got to keep their Morimoto knives that were used in the challenge. During the reward, Raj could not understand the concept of wine tasting as he was gulping it straight, and with a lot of noise. During dinner service, Raj was on the garnish station. He first earned Ramsay's ire when he failed to hear Ramsay's order despite being next to him and stacked up garnishes that haven't been ordered by the customers, leading to being expelled out of the kitchen. His team lost the dinner service. He was the blue team's first nominee for elimination, with Boris being the second, and were eventually joined by Vinny. He survived elimination. Episode 3 During the Breakfast Service Challenge, Raj struggled on scrambled eggs, failing to season them properly, and even tried to calm himself down by putting his head in the freezer only to be pulled back by Ramsay. The blue team lost the challenge, and their punishment was to clean the kitchens and polish stemware. During punishment, Raj and Trev got into an argument over his constant poor performances, but before it got serious, Boris and Russell pulled him out into the hallway to calm him down. During dinner service, Raj was on the fish station. He had a disastrous performance on the fish, serving a salmon with a sauce which was supposed to be grilled, then a raw one. He got berated by Ramsay and his teammates for eating the unacceptable fishes and cooking three Dover soles before being ordered, which emptied their supply. Finally, it got worse when he complains with Ramsay about getting out with a dirty jacket to tell customers about the lack of Dover sole and fought also with Sous Chef Scott. Despite this, the blue team won by having a 54% service rating from the customers. Even though he was on the winning side, Ramsay eliminated Raj from the winning team because of three poor performances in a row, and being completely delusional about his performances and experience. His elimination was met with relief from the remaining blue team members who thanked Ramsay for that. Ramsay's Comment: "When the going gets tough in the kitchen, a chef puts his head down and cooks. All Raj wanted to do was put his head in the freezer, and that's why his stay in Hell's Kitchen was a short one." Trivia *Lisa and Curtis, who were eliminated before Raj, should be deeply embarrassed. *He is the third contestant to be eliminated despite being on the winning team, after Carol from Season 5, and Salvatore from Season 7. Quotes "I'm being targeted, I'm being harassed." "Trevor is really not a nice person, and he's also being very mean." "Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you," "You guys are a bunch....of...SNAKES!" "How can chef Ramsay blame me for eating all this delicious food? It's fantastic." "Oh, so now you're gonna make fun of my weight?" "All right. Go Go." "YES CHEF!" "Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Trivia * Raj is the third person to be eliminated from Hell's Kitchen despite being on the winning team. ** He is also the earliest person so far to be eliminated from the winning team (he was eliminated after the 3rd service). Category:Chef Category:Season 8 Category:Donkeys